Listening is rarely taught in schools because educators (along with almost everyone else) assume that listening is the same as breathing -- automatic. But effective listening is a skill. Like any other skill, competency in listening is achieved through learning and practice.

Listening takes time or, more accurately, you have to take time to listen. A life programmed with back-to-back commitments offers little leeway for listening. Similarly, a mind constantly buzzing with plans, dreams, schemes and anxieties is difficult to clear. Good listening requires the temporary suspension of all unrelated thoughts -- a blank canvas.

In order to become an effective listener, you have to learn to manage what goes on in your mind. Hearing a statement, you create a mental model, vicariously experiencing what the speaker is describing, feeling the speaker's feelings through the filters of your own humanity and experience.

This product is a wonderful progressive relaxation experience with pleasant and soothing voices. The body and mind become very relaxed and receptive to the positive suggestion given to them while in the trance state that is being facilitated. Confidence and creative abilities are brought to the surface through these many wonderful affirmations. These suggestions include how to become an efficient listener. It will allow you to keep an open mind and try to feel what the speaker is feeling. You will be able to be attentive yet relaxed.

Listening is a precious gift -- the gift of time. It helps build relationships, solve problems, ensure understanding, resolve conflicts, and improve accuracy. At work, effective listening means fewer errors and less wasted time. At home, it helps develop resourceful, self-reliant kinds who can solve their own problems. At school, it means easier understanding and higher test scores. Listening builds friendships and careers. It saves money and marriages.